Developments at Virginia Tech
The official Tumblr of Virginia Tech's Office of University Development, located at the Gateway Center on the corner of University City Blvd., and Prices Fork Rd., in Blacksburg, Va.
This website is maintained by the Development Communications team headed by Albert Raboteau, Gary Cope, and Chuck George.
Women who work night shifts or jobs with odd hours have higher rates of breast cancer. Carla Finkielstein wants to know why and she’s getting getting help from The Avon Foundation.
The associate professor of biological sciences in Virginia Tech’s College of Science recently traveled to Washington, D.C., to attend the annual Avon Walk and receive a check for $150,000 in support of her research.
Click on the photo above to learn more about the Avon Foundation’s support for Finkielstein’s research.
Three years ago, Finkielstein arranged for breast cancer survivors and advocates to speak to her students. The goal was to help the students put a face to the disease for which they are trying to find a cure. Below is a video about that unique experience.
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
WVTF public radio aired a feature on Virginia Tech’s Lumenhaus this morning, May 17. You can listen to it above, or click here to read the transcript.
The story references the Virginia Tech students and faculty who became the first university team ever to receive the American Institute of Architects Honor Award, which is one of the most prestigious awards in architecture.
In case you haven’t seen the award-winning solar house, check out this video produced earlier this year.
WVTF is a service of Virginia Tech.
Ten seniors from Virginia Tech’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences presented their research projects on May 3 as part of the John Lee Pratt Animal Nutrition Senior Fellows program. The program promotes the study of animal nutrition across departments throughout the college.
The funding is made available through a bequest of John Lee Pratt, a native Virginian, cattle owner, and, at one time, the CEO of General Motors.
The Pratt endowment provides nearly $1 million a year to the college. Of that, about $150,000 is earmarked for scholarships and the senior research fellow program. The remainder is used for research equipment, bringing visiting scholars to Virginia Tech, and for graduate students’ research and stipends.
Click on the photo to read more.
Congratulations to Virginia Tech professor Patricia M. Dove on being elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Dove, the C.P. Miles Professor of Science in the Department of Geosciences in the College of Science, was selected for membership in recognition of her sustained excellence in original scientific research.
Membership in the NAS is one of the highest honors given to a scientist in the United States. Dove will be inducted into the Academy next April during its 150th annual meeting in Washington, D.C.
Dove was appointed the C.P. “Sally” Miles Professor of Science in September 2010. The professorship was established in 1986 through a gift from Melvin “Cy” Young and honors the Virginia Tech graduate who spent 59 years at the university teaching chemistry and coaching athletic teams. The professorship supports an outstanding faculty member in the College of Science.
Click on the photo to read more.
In January, the Virginia Tech Lumenhaus team was notified that it had been selected to receive a 2012 American Institute of Architects Honor Award for its work on the solar house.
It marked the first time the AIA has ever awarded the honor to a team of student architects. The team will officially receive its award later this month.
The university’s award-winning solar house received substantial support by way of private giving. In fact, many of the successes we see at Virginia Tech benefit in some way from private giving, whether it’s scholarships, professorships, a new building, or program support.
Going on right now: Students and faculty are invited to sign a steel beam that will go inside the new Signature Engineering Building. Here, civil engineering majors Valerie Black and Becca Maine make their marks on the beam in front of Randolph Hall.
Have you signed the beam yet?
Congratulations to the students in Virginia Tech’s College of Engineering on being chosen as the most philanthropic in the country in 2012. They were also cited as having the nation’s best student engineers’ council, according to the results of the recent annual competition hosted by the National Association of Engineering Student Councils (NAESC) at Purdue University.
In the Winter 2012 issue of Impact Magazine (p. 13) we highlighted the philanthropic efforts of the engineering students at Virginia Tech. Since establishing the Paul E. Torgersen Leadership Scholarship in 1986, the Student Engineers’ Council has donated more than $1 million to the college’s students and faculty.
This money was used for various engineering projects, including partially funding more than 30 engineering organizations such as the internationally award-winning hybrid electric vehicle team, the outdoor-terrain motorsport team, and the Baja and Formula Society of Automotive Engineers’ teams.
Click on the photo to learn more about how the engineering students are raising money, and how they are using it to support the college.
Update: The beam signing has been postponed until Thursday, April 19, because of rain. Faculty, students, and members of the community are again invited to lend their signature to the Signature Engineering Building. The times, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., will remain the same.
We thought this might be the case. It’s a rainy day in Blacksburg, but tomorrow should offer some better beam-signing weather.
BLACKSBURG, Va., April 16, 2011 — The College of Engineering invites Virginia Tech students, faculty, and staff, as well as area residents, this week to place their signature and messages of goodwill on a steel beam that will be placed inside the under-construction Signature Engineering Building
Signatures will be collected Wednesday, April 18, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in front of Randolph Hall, near the courtyard main entrance. Engineering departments, such as mechanical, chemical, and engineering education, will move to the $100 million, 150,000-square-foot Signature Engineering Building when construction is finished in spring 2014. The Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering also will have a showcase lab in the new facility. The building is located near the corner of Prices Fork Road and Stanger Streets on the north edge of campus.
This is a unique opportunity to be part of Virginia Tech’s history! We’ll see you tomorrow between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.
On Saturday, April 14, the freshman class of the Corps of Cadets will be making the second half of the 26-mile march completed in 1872 by Virginia Tech’s first cadet and student, Addison Caldwell.
The spring semester chain-of-command, the upper-class cadets who are leading the Corps of Cadets, will march with the freshman to honor them as they complete their challenging year of training.
Alumni and family have donated $88,000 in support of the Caldwell March, a tradition for the corps.
Click on the photo for more information.
